Manufacturers pushing their products and agenda in the forums.

A question for you viridian. (very timely and important thread btw)

When you joined years ago have you been an active poster ever since?

I haven't been obviously but am interested in Audiogon as a whole ever since I have started posting here regular in person. I started my own audio forum in 2004 "TuneLand" and learned many things about forums in general. TuneLand the current version is a much smaller hangout vs the first one which out grew me quickly, but visiting other forums is very informing and shows the trends of the hobby's personalities and do's and don'ts. I say do's and don'ts in reference to things I would never do on my own forum but see practiced elsewhere.

My "other forum" experiences include a few but the ones that caught my attention were the Stereophile and TAS and here that I jumped in and participated in Starting with TAS which folded, then Stereophile (troll city) and here, still very much seeing the potential but as this thread is pointing out may want some changes. One of the them being thread building issues.

Michael Green

http://tuneland.forumotion.com/

Hi viridian

"Mr. Green, thanks again, much appreciated. Oh I remember your ads quite well. The hair, unforgettable, the speakers, not so much. IMHO, manufacturer participation here has run its course."

I'm still on the fence with "manufacturer participation". The same with dealers and any professional agendas. At the same time I don't think these types of forums will have longevity without the whole community being a part.

I also don't see the professionals as being Agon's biggest threat. The hobby of listening to music and talking about it should be "internet troll free". My recommendation to Agon is to implement a 3 strikes your out policy concerning internet trolling. I believe if you get rid of internet trolling (abusive toward other members) this place would change dramatically for the better.

MG

"And yes I have had threads, and posts removed, and have had all of my posts under moderation from time to time."

Yep, see this is something I don't understand about audio forums. I can't get my head around why someone would get angry about audio. And worse the stalking other members to troll them that goes on. It's a forum subculture that is very odd, and many social forum lawyers are actually looking into the legality issues again. I wouldn't be surprised if the banning of forum members started happening as with other social media types now getting more serious about these issues.

MG